How many rooms to block?

Ladies what was the percentage of people you invited that actually did show? With traditional weddings I think its about 10-20% but with DW I am sure its totally different. I am not sure how many rooms to block. Help please. jess

we invited like 120 people, and got about 55 - but i was almost exactly on with who i thought would come and who wouldn't. i didn't do a room block, but i am fairly certain that you can gradually drop rooms from it once you reserve it as you find out how many people are coming or not.

I know there is a window as to when you can release rooms without being penalized but I am not exactly sure when that is. I definitely want to do a room block to gurantee a room rate. There are some people I am sure that would go and some that I think wouldn't, but at the same time I may be surprised as to who comes and who doesn't. If I had my wedding in L.A. it would be around 200 people many traveling from Ireland, Canada, SanFrancisco. 122 of my guest list were family alone from both me and my FI but mostly my FI. Its hard to work on a budget when I am unsure how many people I am working with. jess

My WC told me to expect 60% of our guests to attend the wedding. We invited 70 couples and have had 22 rooms booked so far. In the end, I am guessing that about 50% will end up booking. Like Ann said, there were no big surprises on who did and did not come. We asked around before we did the room block, to get an estimated number of guests that would be coming. Good Luck!

Well, I think it also depends on your guestlist. If you're inviting everyone you've ever encountered, and their 3rd cousin - then I'd expect a lot less. I'm not inviting some uncles and aunts because I'm not close with them. If you're pretty much inviting all of your aunts and uncles regardless of how close you are with them, then expect significantly less.

I'm inviting ONLY the people I feel closest to. My guest list is at about 50, and I expect 30 to attend. I put 15 rooms on block, and might need more - but we'll see! If I invited all of my aunts and uncles and friends, my guest list would probably bump up to about 150, and I'd expect maybe 50 of them to go... just to give you an idea. But I'm rambling. lol.

Happily Married since May 9, 2008Proud Mama to Evelyn Eileen since June 8, 2010

Our numbers were a lot like Ann's - 130 invited, bw 50 and 60 will be there. I blocked 35 rooms and will be using about 25 to 28. I have a few couples staying outside the resort - I think 5 people total fall in that group. I will be making the penalty date cutoffs so no fees there.

This might vary from hotel to hotel, but does anyone know if you block off 10 rooms, and say only 6 get booked and you release the other 4, do those 6 guests who did book still get the reduced rate?

Thanks! Diana

FYI - I room block often isn't the lowest rate. You actually pay more often because you're paying for the convenience of reserving rooms - at least this is how it was at Dreams. And this is why we ended up not doing the room block - our room block rate was $129, but then Dreams ran a promotion where it was $112 or $106 - so we just told guests about that and had them book early. No room block needed! We didn't get the perks that come with a room block, but at least we saved our guests some $$